Even before he had signed on to direct Olympus Has Fallen, Antoine Fuqua had a ton of projects at various stages of development. The one that sounded the most promising for a time was Southpaw, a boxing drama initially pegged for Eminem to star, and it seemed like a natural fit. The film is basically 8 Mile with a pair of boxing gloves, but for whatever reason Sony and MGM couldn't get rolling on it, putting it on ice last spring.
But now The Weinstein Company have stepped in before the 10-count, snagging the rights to and pushing full steam ahead to begin production later this year. Eminem has since moved on, and casting talks to replace him are already underway. Written by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarcy), the story follows a lefty welterweight boxer who fights his way to the championship and wins back the love of his daughter while enduring personal tragedies.
We'll see if this finally happens, although with Fuqua's backlog of projects who knows if he'll even stay attached. He's got the heist film, Chicagoland; a Miles Davis biopic with Don Cheadle; an adaptation of Storming Las Vegas; a possible Chinese Tang Dynasty epic; and he's even been rumored for the 24 film. [LA Times]
